Spend two perfect days in the Hunter Valley

The Hunter Valley, situated just two hours drive from Sydney is Australia’s oldest wine region, and well worth a visit.

Australia’s oldest wine region isn’t just home to award-winning sémillon and shiraz, cellar-door tastings and beautiful vineyard hotels. The fertile valley, just a two-hour drive north of Sydney, offers a feast of experiences, from boutique beer trails to olive oil tasting, locally made chocolate to endless orchards.

Follow the pretty lanes that weave through groves and vines and you will encounter gourmet restaurants, local chefs offering cookery classes using regional ingredients and food markets. See the vines from a different angle on a hot-air balloon ride, snap up amazing arts and crafts at the galleries and counter some of that overindulgence with horse riding and cycling tours to take in your surroundings.

Day 1

Sydney’s bread basket is the perfect place to spend a couple of days after the excitement of touring the city. Hire a car and head north on the M1, watching as the vine-striped landscapes unfold before you. The culture of cellar-door wine tasting means that you can show up at many wineries in the area simply to taste the produce and buy a few bottles. But it's worth doing at least one tour to learn more about the 160-year history of wine growing in the region.

Just 15 miles north of Sydney, turn off for your first vineyard stop. Krinklewood is an organic vineyard where you can learn all about the process during a wine-tasting experience. A boutique winery in the French Provençal style, it is a beautiful introduction to the sémillon, shiraz and chardonnay for which the region is famed.

Another 65 miles north is the perfect stop for a wine tour and lunch. The Bimbadgen Estate is a sprawling vineyard offering a completely different ambience to Krinklewood. You can enjoy a tasting at the cellar door, or head to Esca Bimbadgen restaurant, which specialises in modern Australian cuisine, using local produce such as regional roasted lamb rump with goat’s cheese and courgette or the fish of the day served with tomato, chorizo and white beans.

The region offers many great accommodation options including the Hermitage Lodge. This boutique accommodation is situated in a vineyard and even offers self-contained suites with Jacuzzis on the upstairs deck. Enjoy a glass of wine as you watch the sun sink behind the vines, then head to the lodge’s Il Cacciatore restaurant for more indulgence – it has been voted the best Italian restaurant in the Hunter Valley for nine of the past 10 years.

Day 2

Aim for an early morning the next day and head to Peterson House Winery – just five minutes away – before dawn so that you can enjoy a sunrise hot-air balloon trip with Balloon Safaris. It is worth the early morning start for the peaceful silence as you float over the vines. Finishing off with a champagne breakfast, it is the perfect way to start your day.

If it’s not too early for another drink, pop to the Lovedale Brewery, just down the road from Peterson House, to learn more about the Hunter Valley’s less famous liquid produce. Wine may have made this region world-renowned, but its microbrewery movement has also been gaining recognition in recent years.

Just seven miles away you can visit the Hunter Valley Horse Riding and Adventures site, where you can enjoy a 90-minute guided horse ride through the vines as you learn more about the region’s heritage and take in the countryside from another point of view. And once you have worked up an appetite, head to Restaurant Botanica, a 20-minute drive away. Set within the Spicers Vineyards Estate this is the perfect place to sample the best produce from across the region. Tuck into soft-shell crab, roasted peanuts, green pawpaw and caramelised chilli followed by pistachio and cumin crusted lamb, white bean, lemon, asparagus and pomegranate.

It is the perfect celebration of the best the Hunter Valley has to offer before the easy two-and-a-half-hour drive back to bustling Sydney.

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